Dive In Festival 2019

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Now in its fifth year, the Dive In Festival celebrates diversity and inclusion in insurance across the globe, and is the sector’s only international D&I festival that runs concurrently in multiple organisations across all continents, representing every corner of the industry, from the smallest brokers to the largest multi-national companies. Its mission is simply to advance diversity and inclusion across the insurance sector.

An initiative of Inclusion@Lloyd’s, a cross market collaboration of C-suite executives and industry associations driving the strategic push for greater diversity in the Lloyd’s market, the festival raises awareness and builds momentum, and aims to engage and educate people within the Lloyd’s market on the importance of diversity and inclusion in insurance by providing people with understanding, knowledge and the tools to implement positive change. It helps promote a different view of insurance to a variety of stakeholders and to prospective employees both within and outside the industry.

The Dive In festival has grown from a Lloyd’s market event in London at launch in 2015 to become an award winning global movement that is embraced by the wider insurance industry. If Dive In has a vision, it is that insurance is recognised as a progressive industry where workplace cultures create a level playing field for talent, attracting the very best people regardless of age, gender, class, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, care responsibility or disability. Its mission is to create engaging moments of shared insight and experience that inspire behaviour change at the individual and institutional level to support the creation of inclusive cultures that are good for business and best for people.

The festival will run 24-26 September 2019 with events taking place in more than 60 locations around the world, many in which Kennedys has a presence.

We have a distinctive culture at Kennedys that makes us a successful firm where people enjoy coming to work. Our culture is a source of strength and differentiates us. We are very conscious that as a diverse and global firm we need to ensure that everyone, whoever or wherever they are in the firm, shares and embraces our values. Underpinning our values is our involvement in events that celebrate diversity and inclusion within the sectors in which we operate. Our ongoing series of Women in Insurance events and active involvement with Link demonstrate our commitment to promoting our values in all that we do.

Kennedys is very proud to be a global gold-level sponsor of this year’s festival.

Campaign, theme and key messages

The 2018 festival introduced the two-year campaign Awareness into Action:

A strategy to carry the festival through two years

Establish a path to take the festival into the fifth year

Speak to every level, from CEO to entry-level employees;

and an annual theme of ‘Time for Inclusion’ (#time4inclusion).

Impact, not just awareness

For its milestone 5th year, Dive In 2019 will focus on translating action into measurable impact with an annual theme of Inclusion Impact (#inclusionimpact).

After four successful years of raising awareness of the business case for diversity and inclusion, the festival’s objective is to move from action into measuring and reporting impact.

The theme will work to:

Focus on impact, not just raise awareness

Make a tangible impact on employees, clients and the bottom line

Demonstrate measurable impact from the beginning of Dive In.

Another aim this year is for Dive In to have global reach whilst remaining locally relevant. This ensures that local and cultural differences are incorporated into the festival globally and make sense to the audience in each Dive In host city.

News

Highlights

Kennedys is directly involved in a number of events, around the world, including:

Alex Potts QC (Partner, Bermuda), has organised, and will be moderating, an event in Bermuda - The Bigger Picture: Resilience in Adversity - featuring speaker Ben Merrick. Ben, Director of the Overseas Territories Directorate at the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the UK’s Gold Crisis Leader for Hurricane Response, is registered blind. He acts as a Disability and Visually Impaired Champion for the UK Civil Service, and he is one of the UK’s leading disability role models. From his own experience, Ben will provide inspiration and thought leadership on issues of diversity, inclusiveness, and disability in the workplace. (10:00-12:00, Thursday 26 September, Chubb, Hamilton, Bermuda).

Suzanne Liversidge (Managing Partner, Sheffield) will form a panel with ex-England Rugby international, Ben Cohen, for the Stamping Out Bullying and Harassment event, which highlights the impact of bullying and harassment for individuals. Ben will be sharing his personal story and his work with the Stand Up Foundation. This will be followed by a panel discussion to talk about what individuals and organisations need to do to stamp out bullying and harassment in the workplace. (13:00-14:30, Tuesday 24 September, Lloyd's (Old Library), London, UK).

Claire Bushen (Partner, Manchester) will join the panel of the A boot in both camps event, which is being hosted by Kennedys' Manchester office. Many in insurance are involved in more than one industry; but diversity is not always as far on in some of those other sectors. This event will explore the impact this has on individuals and the role of those that are further on the diversity journey, to influence and assist other sectors on their journey. (17:30-19:30, Wednesday 25 September, Kennedys, Manchester, UK).

Kennedys' London office is hosting the Inviting your human into the workspaceevent, featuring Jamesina Sainsbury and Jon Gausden of Veldhoen + Company. This workshop will identify the core elements that enable people to flourish, in turn allowing us to fulfill our potential in organisations. (11:00-12:00, Wednesday 25 September, Kennedys, London, UK).

Kennedys' London office is hosting the Do you want to be a London Insurance Life Ambassador?event - a presentation and panel discussion featuring LIL Ambassadors relating their experiences as an ambassador and on the challenges attracting and keeping talent, and any challenges to do with diversity (15:00-16:00, Thursday 26 September, Kennedys, London, UK).

Kennedys' Birmingham office is hosting the Transition in the workplace event, consisting of a panel of three guest speakers, and a question and answer session, that aims to increase professional awareness of the hugely variable journey that people go through when they transition. (16:00-17:30, Thursday 26 September, Kennedys, Birmingham, UK).

In 2018, the festival attracted more than 9,000 people to attend in excess of 115 events in over 50 cities in 27 countries around the world. Plans for the 2019 festival are well underway, and it is expected to be the largest yet, with events taking place in more than 60 locations. A video learning library of diversity and inclusion content from the previous festivals is available on the Dive In website and on the Dive In app, on both Apple and Android.